Terrific damage was wrought on Japanese airfields by U.S. Army Air Forces during a raid on Buru Island near Celebes in the battle for New Guinea in July 1944. A few seconds after this photograph was taken a direct hit completely shattered the grounded and camouflaged Japanese plane in the foreground. Describing these new “parafrag” bombs, General Henry H. Arnold, head of the U.S. Army Air Force, declared, “They break into thousands of pieces, each weighing about 3-oz. and having velocities up to 4,000 ft, per second." Their design enabled low-flying bombing to be carried out with extraordinary accuracy.